For many years,

the only way to buy television media was off of broad-based age and gender demos.

Not anymore

The term “audience buying” was not a method ever discussed, mainly because there was no need for it.

A quarter of a century ago consumers had 30 network choices delivered solely by broadcast and cable networks and affiliate stations. Today, the average U.S. household receives some 200 over-the-air channels, and roughly 50% of those homes are also streaming content through a smart TV or other wireless device.

So what does this mean for advertisers today? It means that agencies need to be smarter with their planning and execution and utilize data to align advertising messages with the “right” audience watching TV.

Sample TV Audiences

WOMEN WHO RULE

Meet Danielle, one of the Women Who Rule.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that she drives a Honda Odyssey; this battering ram and its countless mirrors allow her to keep a vigilant eye on her children seated in both the second and third rows as she pilots them between school, sports, and the home she owns with her husband, Mark. When she isn’t playing an Uber driver, required to drop the teenaged twins off around the corner from their chosen destination, she uses her most vital external organ (aka her iPhone) to entertain her fellow former-career-women-now-conducting-kid-traffic-control friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram which she uses as a forum to exercise her dry wit and love for the L.A. Dodgers, Lakers, and Rams. Fox News and Chip and Joanna are favorites, but when she really wants to get away, there’s no getting around the fact that she’d rather have the brood in tow, bound for a Disney Cruise or trip to the Magic Kingdom–her idea of the Happiest Place on Earth.

More Likely to be watching HGTV

92%

More Likely to be watching Real Housewives of Orange County

64%

More Likely to be watching The Bachelor

29%

TECH TRAILBLAZERS

You know that friend that always have the latest gadget, even though they drive a Subaru Forester that hasn’t had a tune-up since Barak Obama was inaugurated for the first time?

That would be Francisco, your consummate Tech Trailblazer. His FEEL THE BERN bumper sticker, which he displays like a badge of honor, might just be describing the feeling he occasionally gets in his throat, given his penchant for vaping. On the other hand, he can always drown out any harshness with a Redhook or Mt. Dew Kickstart—so long as it doesn’t compromise the bespoke wax he uses on his ironic mustache. Francisco’s idea of getaway? To wander the noir nights of a dark city using his Oculus Rift 3D Virtual Reality headset or lying in his landlord’s backyard while watching the stars with a pair of Armasight Night Vision Goggles. After all, he would wonder, why would you sweat leaving home for the urban core or outer space when you can live in the Southwest and visit distant places in your head any time you want just by flipping a switch?

More Likely to be watching Rick & Morty

59%

More Likely to be watching CNBC

47%

More likely to be watching Paramount Network

34%

SUSTAINABLY-MINDED CONSUMER

There’s a bin for plastic, one for cardboard, another for glass, and yet another for tin foil and the like.

You’ve just entered the recycle section of Ben and Regina’s garage—the consummate Sustainably-Minded Consumers. The bins are lined up beside their Nissan Leaf, which Ben uses to moonlight as a Lyft driver when he isn’t cycling to work where he fine tunes fixed-gear bikes. Regina is a social media copywriter who dreams of ditching posts about cooking with clay, and leaving it all behind to be a full-time travel vlogger; but then, what would they do with their English Bulldog, Queen Elizabreath? After all, the old girl can’t open those deliveries from Chewy by herself, no matter how often they brush her snaggletooth with Tom’s of Maine. Their idea of a perfect night out is to stay in watching Dark Matter on Netflix with a six-pack of Ninkasi Total Domination IPA, and then falling asleep in their matching flannel nightshirts to some Bon Iver. On vinyl, naturally.

More Likely to be Cord-Cutter

48%

More Likely to be watching Vice

42%

More Likely to be watching Pivot TV

10%

Let’s talk. Seriously.

Reach out now to discover the power of TRADR’s custom audiences. We’ll be in touch within one business day.